My chiropractor had a flyer in her office about how simple it is to eat healthy. It focused on dispelling some of the common myths around wellness. One of the major myths the handout focused on was that eating healthy is too expensive.

I looked at the receptionist and chuckled, sharing that I hear that all the time. From my own experience I know that it’s no more expensive, especially when you take the time to learn how to cook using real food. I also know that you either spend the money on quality food or you spend it at the doctor’s office.

I’m not guaranteeing perfect health if your diet is clean. But there’s a much bigger chance of wellness when it is.

Are you wondering what apple tarts have to do with healthy eating? I thought I’d show you how easy it is to make a dessert that’s also good for you.

I don’t know about you but I enjoy dessert once in a while. And, I love to make healthier dessert for my family and friends. My favorite part is when they have no idea the dish isn’t loaded with unhealthy ingredients and they gobble up every last bite.

When I think dessert, I don’t think super sweet, goopy, make-your-belly-ache-and-your-head-spin. Instead, I think perfectly sweet with some good-for-you stuff thrown in the mix.

People seem to avoid making pies and tarts because of the dreaded crust. It’s one of those recipes that’s so simple it’ll fail if not executed perfectly. Instead of mixing up a dough and rolling it out, this crust recipe uses nuts, Erewhon’s whole grain Crispy Brown Rice Gluten Free Cereal, omgea-3 fatty acid rich walnuts, dates, and a little coconut oil. It all goes in the food processor and you just have to press it into your tart pans. Easy peasy.

Organic food is another important component of this dish. Apples are heavy in pesticides so buying organic keeps those harmful chemicals out of your system. Erewhon’s cereals are all organic too.

This recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free. Butter can be used in place of coconut oil if you choose. I like coconut palm sugar because it’s low glycemic and contains some macronutrients. Any granulated sugar could be used as a substitute.

What are your favorite ways to enjoy a healthy dessert?

Mini-Apples Tarts

makes 4 (4-inch) tarts

For the crust:

1 1/4 cups walnuts

1 1/4 cups Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Gluten Free cereal

3 large Medjool dates

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the filling:

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and medium diced

1 tablespoon coconut palm sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

For the topping:

1 cup Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal

3 tablespoons melted coconut oil

2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Make the crust:

Put the walnuts and the Crispy Brown Rice Cereal in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until finely ground. Add dates, melted coconut oil, and cinnamon. Process until the mixture comes together like a dough.

Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Press the dough into the tart pans.

Make the filling:

Put the diced apples in a medium bowl. Toss with coconut palm sugar and cinnamon. Divide the apples between the four prepared tart pans.

Make the topping:

Put the Crispy Brown Rice Cereal in the food processor. Process until finely ground. Add the melted coconut oil and coconut palm sugar. Process until combined. Divide between the four tarts.

Place the tarts on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until the apples are fork tender. If the crust begins to get too brown, cover with a piece of aluminum foil.

Wonderful recipe Amy! This is one of my favorite desserts, but I usually skip the crust and double up the topping

http://twitter.com/GFMelissa Melissa

That crust sounds (and looks) amazing, along with being quite versatile! What a great idea to make little mini tarts. Great recipe!

http://www.carascravings.com Cara

I want one now! These look so tasty. What a perfect and easy dessert! With spring and summer coming, I know these would be delicious with berries as well.

Anonymous

I love these! I have mini tart pans at home, so I’m thinking this is a calling so I can make apple tarts. Great recipe.

Anonymous

My husband is allergic to nuts and is on a low fat diet due to health reasons, can I take the nuts out without ruining the recipe? What can I use instead of the coconut oil?

Anonymous

I can’t wait to make these! They are right up my alley and I won’t feel any guilt. Thanks Amy. All I need is the pans, I guess I’ll have to go shopping.

http://twitter.com/alleVoegelchen Gabriele ONeill

I want to preface my comment, by saying that I really appreciate your blog and web site and your efforts to find good tasting gluten free recipes. It has obviously transformed your own life, so more power to you!
Having said that, I prefer recipes that don’t require brand name ready made products like “Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Gluten Free Cereal”:
I thought this was all about “learning to make food from scratch”?
Before I went gluten free, I used to love to bake (I remember when all it took to make great bread was one kind of grain, sourdough, water and an oven).
When I look at glutenfree baking recipes, they usually require lots of different ingredients, which are all pricey and which I usually don’t have on hand. So the whole spontaneously creative baking habit I used to have has gotten a huge damper. The sad part about it is that the end product of all this effort to make gluten free bread taste great is still less satisfying than good ol’ loaf whole wheat or rye bread.
Maybe some of you disagree with that, but it’s my subjective truth. I grew up in Germany, the land of bread, if you will, so I’m not easily pleased in that department.
I actually ate some terrific tasting gluten free whole grain bread for the first time in my life, while I was there on vacation last month, but the bakery didn’t give away the recipe. It was the kind of chewy, dark, dense, but not hard, extremely flavorful stuff that I had been craving since I went off gluten.
Well, the bakery didn’t give away the recipe and I discovered it too late to do further research before my departure.
So, back here, instead of going through all this effort and expense for something that tastes no better than cooked rice to me, I often simply choose to eat cooked rice (or quinoa, or millet, …) instead.
Especially since the other thing I realized is that gluten sensitivity could simply be a hint from our body to eat less grains, period.
Being on a mostly grain diet isn’t good for many people, including myself, even if those grains contain no gluten whatsoever. When you replace whole wheat with gluten free grains on such a diet and don’t change anything else, you often end up not getting enough fiber.
I found that I need to eat mostly vegetables and less grains for my body to function optimally, and that’s been a hard nut to swallow for a “breadoholic”, but luckily I love vegetables, too.
If I ever figure out the recipe for that bread I ate last month, I’ll share it here.
It was a revelation, to say the least, showing me that gluten free CAN taste like the real thing.
It’s probably a good thing I don’t live there – I’d get into the habit of eating too much bread again…

http://twitter.com/RickiHeller Ricki Heller

Hi Gabriele,
I’ve actually found the opposite–I now have such a great variety of flours and grains on hand most of the time that I can be more spontaneous and always have something on hand to bake! Re: your comment about the ready-made ingredients (and please note I have no affiliation with Attune), since this is Attune Products’ website, I would expect that their recipes would contain their own ingredients. I know there are lots of personal gluten-free blogs out there, though, that don’t, if that’s what you’re looking for.

http://twitter.com/Amys_SSGF Amy Green (SS&GF)

Thanks for sharing your experience, Gabriele. Regarding the specific mention of product – Erewhon is actually one of the few cereals out there that is gluten-free and refined sugar-free. Even if I this post weren’t written for Attune, I would have mentioned the product specifically by name so that people knew which cereal I used. I wouldn’t want them to think I was using a white sugar based cereal.

http://twitter.com/alleVoegelchen Gabriele ONeill

You’re both right on the brand name issue, Amy and Ricki: I followed the link to the apple tarts from your other blog and didn’t realize that I was on the “attune foods” blog when I wrote that comment.

http://twitter.com/RickiHeller Ricki Heller

So adorable–and so tempting! I also love healthier desserts. For some reason, apple pie/tart has never really been on my radar. . . until NOW!

Anonymous

How lovely! I need to get some of those pans too!

http://twitter.com/Amys_SSGF Amy Green (SS&GF)

They’re from Sur la Table…my big weakness!!

http://twitter.com/Amys_SSGF Amy Green (SS&GF)

I love the crust…it’s a weakness of mine. Doubling the topping sounds like a great idea, though!!

http://twitter.com/Amys_SSGF Amy Green (SS&GF)

The nuts help the crust come together. You could try using more dates – but I’m just guessing. I haven’t tried it yet. Instead of coconut oil, try butter or another solid fat like non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening.

http://www.facebook.com/MarlaMeridith Marla Meridith

Amy I must try these tarts ASAP!!

Anonymous

I would love to have the nutrition information including sugar and carbs.

Anonymous

I didn’t notice a print-friendly link on your recipes. Is it possible to print just the recipe rather than the entire article?

About Attune Foods

At Attune Foods, we believe what matters most is what’s inside so we make our foods from simple ingredients, simply made including our Uncle Sam cereal, Erewhon organic cereals and grahams, and our attune probiotic chocolate bars.
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